Following a holiday tradition that extends back at least four years, 47 of Jefferson Parish's top administrators combined to give Parish President Aaron Broussard $4,775 this year in gift certificates for meals, clothes and travel, according to records provided by the parish.

John McCusker/The Times-PicayuneJefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard has collected gifts and cash totaling $18,800 since 2006 from his department heads and executive staffers.

Broussard has collected gifts and cash totaling $18,800 since 2006 from his department heads and executive staffers, who gave at least $100 each every year, records show.

This year, the cash paid for a $4,500 gift certificate to Rada's World of Travel in Kenner, $200 for a meal at Sake Cafe and a $75 to Tom James Co., a designer suit store, the records show.

Likewise, each member of the executive staff pitched in an additional $50 or so for Tim Whitmer, Broussard's chief administrative officer who is now the target of a federal criminal probe surrounding his private insurance business. He received $690 this year; all in cash, records show.

The department heads and staffers are not civil service employees, meaning they work at the pleasure of Broussard and Whitmer. Whitmer is the highest paid employee, earning $189,000 a year. Broussard earns $124,000 a year, records show.

The gift-giving is reciprocal, Broussard said last week. Every holiday season, the parish president throws a party and delivers presents to his top administrators.

"This is just a Christmas tradition and like I said, I host this event every year," he said. "We celebrate the season and we exchange gifts."

However, Broussard didn't pay for the gifts out of his own pocket. For example, he spent $832 in 2008 for "Christmas gifts for staff," and $520 for "pens for Christmas gifts." Broussard paid for the gifts from his campaign coffers, he said. Parish officials, including Broussard, said the gifts were voluntary and given freely. While one administrator, Deano Bonano, said he paid willingly, correspondence between others, along with a checklist kept by executive Assistant Angela Pacaccio, the money collector, showed strict accounting of those who didn't pay immediately.

Whitmer didn't respond last week to an e-mail requesting comment. Broussard put him on paid administrative leave earlier this month.

Chief Administrative Assistant Bonano, who oversees the administration's emergency management, said he has never been coerced into paying.

But checklists show Bonano and others had to be reminded to pay. Also, an e-mail from senior services coordinator Wayne Ory to Pacaccio indicates the importance of being included on the gift list.

"Angela," he wrote, "I apologize today at lunch by trying to speak to you about Aaron's Christmas Gift. For some reasons I did not get an e-mail or letter...I will be on the East Bank tomorrow morning and will drop off my donation to you at the Yenni Building." Ory couldn't be reached at his office Thursday.

For his part, Broussard said he never knows who pays for his gifts. He recalled spending one travel voucher on a ski trip and another on a trip to Boston. He said he didn't claim the gifts on his tax return because it didn't meet the $12,000 threshold to qualify as more than a gift in the eyes of the IRS.